Profiling rural Australia: impact of changes in the agriculture sector on rural towns

Traditionally, many of Australia’s rural communities have been heavily dependent on the agriculture sector for their economic prosperity. Changes in the structure of agriculture have driven changes in the levels and patterns of employment, educational opportunities and the level and location of rural services. All of these factors have contributed to the changing shape of regional society.

In addition to the decline in the number of agricultural establishments, the increase in average farm size and a decline in the importance of the agriculture sector to the national economy, a number of other changes occurred in the Australian broadacre agriculture sector in the early 1990s. The impacts of these changes have differed across regions of Australia — and the towns therein.